Sony A7x lounge

vinmunoz wrote in post #18320570
I think i'm going with the LX100. the only drawback on it for me is a tilty LCD but I can live with it. Image quality is superb. Look at images on flicker and it blows me away on colors, sharpness and contrast.

Gonna go for black or silver?

I think the silver looks sexy.

Silver for me too. more retro.

vinmunoz wrote in post #18320540
The sony fe 90mm f2.8 macro is a good candidate too.

I've heard its got terrible bokeh or rendering for head shots.
from a few different sources, some on this site.
I'll keep it in mind tho.

mystik610 wrote in post #18320575
"Best" is pretty subjective but here's my take on the 85mm situation:

85GM is the best for outdoor portraiture where you're grappling with distracting backgrounds and high contrast light. Somewhat muted rendering which makes for pleasing rendering of skin tones, but can look flat at times. Bokeh is outstanding. Best bokeh I've seen in an 85. Really expensive compared to the alternatives, but since I'm an outdoor portrait guy, its a worthwhile investment (literally since its doing the majority of my paid work).

Batis 85: Classic Zeiss rendering. Nice and contrasty with punchy colors. OOF rendering of highlights can be pretty harsh. Its a situational thing, but since I do a lot of outdoor portraits and deal with things like sunlight through leaves and what-not, it bugged me so I sold it for the GM. Outside of that, I found the Batis to be stellar optically.

FE 85: Jury seems to be out on this one, but the early indication is that this is right up there with the Batis/GM in terms of sharpness. The GM still seems to get the nod for its rendering for portraits, but the FE seems like a compelling alternative to the Batis at a much cheaper price point. From what I've seen of the direct comparisons the FE85 has a more muted rendering than the Batis 85 but it could be brand bias getting in my head....it'd be interesting to play with raw files shot on both, since its hard to get a sense of the rendering until you process files.

85ART: MTF charts look good, but the bokeh and rendering are really harsh from what I've seen of the sample images. Totally subjective, but I felt the same way about my old sigma 35 and 50 ART. MC-11 enables native AF, but based on my experience with the 12-24 art, its not quite as reliable as a true native lens ...and when you're trying to nail the focus with a shallow DOF of an 85mm lens wide open it could make a difference.

I've heard the GM is best for outdoor because how creamy it is.
I've never shot zeiss class so I know they have the microcontrast(?) a lot of people talk about.
I've also heard that people like the batis for head shot stuff a lot more just because of how it renders on the a7rii which is what I have.
Getting more money is not the problem I just need to buy a lens in the next day or so to get back to actually making money haha.

I don't mind adapting glass for smaller stuff like the 50mm and 24mm but I feel like for business head shots I need something 100% reliable and that seems to be sony. I love Eye AF. I think I might end up doing the 85mm GM. the 24-70 was really nice so I'd imagine the 85mm has to be on par.

Not sure
Definitely torn on this one.
Especially since photoshop is a thing and its not like I EVER go from RAW to web.

Picked up a Godox 350s the other day. My Nissin i40 was a trusty little flash that even got a bit of event work done for me for the past 2+ years, but it didn't exactly stand the test of time....the manual dials were nice, until the paint rubbed off. I lived with it for a while until the hot-shoe broke on me. This isn't a nissin issue....its Sony's idea to design their hot-shoe with a plastic mount. (I have a Godox 860II with a broken hot shoe too).


The Godox is a lot cheaper $90 vs $250 and work with my godox wireless system, but there are some immediate downsides. Notably, because it draws from 2 batteries vs the 4 in the nissin, it has a much smaller power supply. This was already obvious when testing some shots around the house with the kids and the recycle times started getting pretty long after a series of shots. Probably good enough for casual shooting though. The i40, in comparison, is pretty damn powerful and punches well above its weight class.

Second downside is that while the godox will swivel 180 degrees to the right, it will only swivel 90 degrees to the left. It's pretty limiting given that I like to use directional bounce flash to shape the painting of shadows and I have less flexibility. But again, good enough for casual use. For serious shooting I'll lean on my Godox 860II.

Quick size comparison. I expected the Godox to be smaller, but this was not the case. Its still pretty small though...small enough to shove in your pocket.

Nick Aufiero wrote in post #18320609
I've heard its got terrible bokeh or rendering for head shots.
from a few different sources, some on this site.
I'll keep it in mind tho.

I've heard the GM is best for outdoor because how creamy it is.
I've never shot zeiss class so I know they have the microcontrast(?) a lot of people talk about.
I've also heard that people like the batis for head shot stuff a lot more just because of how it renders on the a7rii which is what I have.
Getting more money is not the problem I just need to buy a lens in the next day or so to get back to actually making money haha.

I don't mind adapting glass for smaller stuff like the 50mm and 24mm but I feel like for business head shots I need something 100% reliable and that seems to be sony. I love Eye AF. I think I might end up doing the 85mm GM. the 24-70 was really nice so I'd imagine the 85mm has to be on par.

Not sure
Definitely torn on this one.
Especially since photoshop is a thing and its not like I EVER go from RAW to web.

The difference in the bokeh is probably not as apparent with head-shots and you're framing tighter (standing closer) to your subject and compressing a good amount of the background. Its most apparent for full body or half body shots that are more environmental in nature.

For tightly framed shots, I can see the rationale behind preferring the batis. Its a matter of taste, but the two lenses are very different:

Zeiss microcontrast:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/AWH3​cC

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JbuN​N2

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/PC2H​Pw

Nick Aufiero wrote in post #18320609
I've heard its got terrible bokeh or rendering for head shots.
from a few different sources, some on this site.
I'll keep it in mind tho...

I've been pleased with both bokeh and rendering with my FE 90. Here are a couple of portraits I've taken with my FE 90G macro lens for comparison.

All at f2.8

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/xNmg​DL

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ysqi​Vp

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Az8f​w2

Nick Aufiero wrote in post #18320531
So i need a lens for professional headshots.
I'm torn between the 85mm art and the Sony 85mms.

I have about $1700 but was considering the cheaper ones so I could get a flash (I'm natural light atm since I just swapped from canon and have yet to sell it)

What would you rate the top 3 headshot lenses and why? 85mm+

I have the mc-11 adapter
I don't mind big and bulky. I just want the best results.

If you are doing this for work...I would have to say the GM...I am trying to figure out how to get the CEO to agree with me...I loved working with it, aperture on lens was a HUGE plus for me...and it just renders stunning images with well controlled bokeh...this one had that light through the trees like Carlo mentioned...

TRhoads wrote in post #18320411
the 85GM at f/1.4 makes a great environmental portrait lens...it will allow you to show enough sense of place and surrounding...but shoot fast enough to really isolate that which is the most important in a scene...this is without a doubt my favorite image from my shoot with my Uncle. This set has been the hardest of my life to edit...not because there was a lot to edit, or that I made errors in the field that required a lot to fix, not because I did a lot with them...but because of the gravity of the situation. I have had to edit them in phases, a little bit at a time, the knowledge of the eventual outcome has been emotionally taxing...but I like this one a lot. A man, his dog...and his old truck.

Hosted photo: posted by TRhoads in
./showthread.php?p=183​20411&i=i146428870
forum: Sony Digital Cameras

Really nice work Travis.

You tell a good story of him in this photo. It's one of those photos where you can see the subject through the eyes of the photographer.

mystik610 wrote in post #18320647
Really nice work Travis.

You tell a good story of him in this photo. It's one of those photos where you can see the subject through the eyes of the photographer.

Thank you, to tell his story through a photo was the goal, so I am thrilled to hear that it comes across for someone who doesn't know him...thank you.

135mm could be something I'd keep in mind
I love love loved my canon 135mm L
best lens I've ever owned.
I guess I could get another 135mm I just know the focal length really limits me to only headshots. Which I guess is its purpose.

Only I may try the 85mm batis

that last shot is beautiful tho.
I didn't really know sony made a 135mm

big question for me in deciding... does the 135mm have eye AF? I see a few posts saying it doesn't but the one on BHP say it at least has AF

Nick Aufiero wrote in post #18320682
135mm could be something I'd keep in mind
I love love loved my canon 135mm L
best lens I've ever owned.
I guess I could get another 135mm I just know the focal length really limits me to only headshots. Which I guess is its purpose.

Only I may try the 85mm batis

that last shot is beautiful tho.
I didn't really know sony made a 135mm

big question for me in deciding... does the 135mm have eye AF? I see a few posts saying it doesn't but the one on BHP say it at least has AF

I love my 135L on the A7R2. I don't think you are limited to headshots, I do full family portraits with space with it all the time...being far enough back you can shoot wide open and still get two rows of people in focus. It does not have Eye AF with a Metabones, but AF works just fine.

sorry I meant does the sony 135mm have eye AF. the zeiss sonar one


I would love to get the 135mm again but one reason I made the swap was to use the eye AF purely on the head shots haha

I wish they would stop making so many choices for me

Sony has 3 native 85mms and one 135mm. Sigma has the 85mm and the 135mm now -.-

too much!


I will be honest tho, I had a lot of focusing blips today when using the new mc-11 adapter with the 50mm.
I may honestly slowly sell this stuff off and swap purely to sony lenses.

I love sigma dearly but I think adapting lenses has small caveats I may not like

I shot adapted for the first 16 months of Sony ownership...then I rented a native lens and have been moving toward native ever since, the AF is much faster, works better in low light and it is one less thing to have to fiddle with in the field...


...but the 135L will go no where!

LOL honestly dude that is how I feel about my 50mm art series
it has been so near and dear to me that I don't wanna let it go -.-

I do see the speeds and focusing suffering tho sometimes in the whole two days I've been shooting
especially since I shoot a lot of high contrast images and in weird situations.
I may see if I can just sell off these lenses in the next week and move fully native.

I love primes tho.

I may just get the 55mm 1.8 and see how it holds up for a bit.

Nick Aufiero wrote in post #18320711
LOL honestly dude that is how I feel about my 50mm art series
it has been so near and dear to me that I don't wanna let it go -.-

I do see the speeds and focusing suffering tho sometimes in the whole two days I've been shooting
especially since I shoot a lot of high contrast images and in weird situations.
I may see if I can just sell off these lenses in the next week and move fully native.

I love primes tho.

I may just get the 55mm 1.8 and see how it holds up for a bit.

I have had trouble with the idea of parting with my 50ART too...mostly because I still have a full 2 Body Canon setup too...and the 50ART is pretty awesome, and in the right light it works great on the Sony too.